Houston mental health field lacks Spanish speakers

SOCIAL WORKPatients with no one to talk to

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, April 17, 2005

Teresa Flores won't have to worry about finding a job when she finishes her master's degree in social work at the University of Houston this spring and takes her licensing exam.

Flores, who is fluent in Spanish, already has been recruited by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where bilingual social workers are in high demand.

The need has become so great in the Houston area that UH is now offering scholarships to entice people who speak Spanish into graduate classes to study social work.

At M.D. Anderson, of the 45 social workers who will be on staff by the end of the month, only five will be able to fluently converse with the hospital's Spanish-speaking cancer patients, said social worker supervisor Aida Molano.

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"When you are doing therapy, the most important thing is to talk to that person in their own language, no matter how fluent they are in English," she said. "When you are so scared and anxious, it's like you come back to your mother tongue. It is much easier for them to express their feelings."

The shortage of Spanish-speaking social workers is creating challenges at hospitals, schools and counseling centers throughout the community, according to a recent survey by UH's Graduate School of Social Work.

While 17 percent of the social workers who come into contact with clients are fluent in Spanish, the study said, 45 percent of the people they serve either speak no English or are far more comfortable in Spanish.

The study also found that nearly 70 percent of the agencies that hire social workers have at least some difficulty finding people who are fluent in Spanish. Nearly one-third of them say they use untrained people as translators.

And the problem isn't limited to just social workers. Spanish-speaking therapists and mental health professionals of all kinds are in short supply.

Depelchin Children's Center recently advertised for a Spanish-speaking therapist and got one response from a woman in San Antonio who submitted a résumé but never returned a call.

"It's terrible," said Walker, who oversees a staff of 40 therapists, about a fourth of them with Spanish-speaking ability. "You have somebody who comes in suffering from depression, and everything is lost in the translation, literally."

Family therapist Mary Ann Descant only half jokes when she says she was recruited by Depelchin "because I could say taco."

"They called because I had conversational Spanish," she said. "Now it's a passion of mine to learn it."

Flores said there are a variety of reasons why more Hispanics do not pursue social work. A disproportionately low percentage of Hispanics enroll in college, and even fewer go on to seek a master's degree, which is necessary to be licensed in social work, she said.

What's more, she said, many Hispanics who do seek higher degrees are not themselves fluent in Spanish because they were encouraged in school to speak English. Many who do pursue advanced degrees are attracted to more lucrative fields.

"There are so many variables," said Flores, whose mastery of Spanish was influenced by her Cuban father and Mexican mother who spoke their native language in the home after they came to the United States.

At the UH Graduate School of Social Work, officials are now offering an incentive to attract more bilingual students. Beginning in the fall, five $20,000 scholarships will be offered each year for three years to Spanish-speaking students pursuing a master's degree in social work.

So far, officials say, 24 of the 106 students admitted for the fall semester speak Spanish, while 35 identify themselves as Hispanic.

"It's certainly not proportionate to the number of Hispanics in our city, if they are around a third of our population," said Barbara Henley, a clinical instructor at the Graduate School of Social Work. "We would hope to get many more than that. We need to actively recruit to bring these important people into our graduate school."